Old-school hip-hop heads know that bouncing with some hard beats is always a challenge, even with rap pre-1995. My son likes to roll with tunes that were out when he was still in a car seat, and is now facing that challenge when he’s rolling with my grandson.

I’ll post up the playlist pretty soon, but for now, just turn up that bass, grab the kids, grab your bible, and lets ride…

From the left: Godfather of the bunch – Cobra J with his concrete-shedding Shelby that always turns heads standing still and wherever he rolls up. For those Bow-Ties and Exotics that think, “Oh, it’s just a Shelby Mustang…”. I say, “Good look with that.”

CSD – with the ’95 GT.

Brother X with some ’86 Four-Eyed Pride – He travels over 4 states each year for just this event! Each year I’ve seen him, I think he’s had a different Stang. May I add, Brother X is a good bro that we’ve got to know through the Dream Cruise. As I get older, I realize that you don’t meet many genuine folks in this life, and it’s been fun getting to know X each year.

Son of a CSD and CSD himself – My Son! Representing in his own ’88 Fox GT…and no, there’s not an AT in the group.

But because we do believe in diversity among the Brothers, my cuz even found us with his convertible SS over to the far left! So just to give him some love, below is an even better show of his ride…(but let it be known that he a BAD and heavily modded notchback a few years ago). Cuz always has a way of doing the Paula Abdul and “making a ride his own”, so stay-tuned as I’m sure this will turn out to be a pretty unique S/S in the months to come. He purchased it recently and it already looks different!

The single greatest car event in the WORLD (as far as I know and you all know me, I’m not an “arrogant American”) takes place in Michigan every August.

For the last couple of years, I’ve taken Black Thunder down to Mustang Alley in Ferndale, Michigan. Since I had a wedding to attend Saturday night, I didn’t get a chance to cruise too much on the main day, but I got more than enough in on Friday night.

So more pics are coming, but for now…

Here was Black Thunder getting shined up one final time Saturday morning (after only 4 hours of sleep from the night before) as I headed out with the girls.

Oh, and on that note, the plan was to take the girls Saturday morning as I took the boys Friday night. I woke my girls up Saturday at 5 am and I knew they were tired. I tried to give them an out, and said, “If it’s too early, you don’t have to go.” But what did they say? “That’s okay, we want to go!”

Ah kid…that’s a tear-jerking moment right there. After spending 7 hours in the hot and humid weather and another 3 in the car…in traffic…with only the windows down (you really didn’t think I’d use the A/C did ya?)…that night I received a good night kiss and a “thanks for taking us to Woodward”.

Dad’s, with all of the cheating that is going on in sports these days, how do you talk to your kids about this issue?

It’s hardly new. “Back in my day”, I wanted to throw a knuckler like Phil and Joe Niekro and a spitball like Gaylord Perry. Those were fun guys and Joe and Gaylord were cheaters, but hey, it was funny right? Did George Brett really mean to run Pine Tar that far up on the bat?

Come on! Lighten up!

Now this was before we really got serious on baseball cheaters like McGwire, Sosa, Bond (allegedly), A-Rod and the list goes on and on in that sport. But then there’s “Stickum” in football, anabolic steroids, growth hormone in almost every Olympic sport, blood doping in cycling, academic cheating from junior high through college for basketball and football players, car modification cheating in racing…maybe it is true, if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying!

So we really shouldn’t be tripping out about Tom Brady.

But this article in The Root breaks down that we do view and talk about cheaters differently, I highly recommend giving it a read.

Here are some of the highlights:

“If he were black, people would be calling him a criminal and saying that his behavior reflected some innate values. They would blame hip-hop, single mothers and the culture of poverty. If he were a black player, the conversation wouldn’t be about Goodell or the system but how the lack of a work ethic and morals led him to cut corners, to win “by any means necessary.” If he were black, the conversation would turn to affirmative action and how he was forced to cheat because he lacked the skills needed to excel at this elite level….Brady demonstrates yet again that whites are innocent … until proved innocent. Any evidence to the contrary proves that the system is flawed, that we have a miscarriage of justice.”

Dad’s when you’re having this discussion with your kids, do you unknowingly talk differently based on the color of the athlete?

It’s something to think about and it’s how we teach our children about so-called race, without ever talking about race in our homes. Then we proudly exclaim to the world, “I teach my kids that skin color doesn’t matter, everybody should be treated the same!”

So do you treat everyone the same in your actions and judgements on who’s a cheater and who isn’t? Perhaps this is a good discussion to have with ourselves first, and then our children as well.

Spending the night the Dirty Dodge. The color is as ugly as the weather outside, but I must confess…this is still the BEST family man muscle car out today!

Good:

– Launch Control!

– Rumble at start-up is incredible.

– Computer allows you to have plenty of fun in Sport mode with an insane menu of adjustments that you can make on the powertrain side.

– Plenty of leg room for the fam. My 8-year old sat behind me and I didn’t have to adjust my seat. That could not have been done in the Camaro or Mustang.

– Cylinder Deactivation works very well, but it’s still hard to pull more MPGs when you want to have your foot in it all the time. If it was my daily driver, I think I could get a consistent 20 mpg…which is what my other Dirty Dodge gets (that nasty minivan) but it would be a smile-filled 20!

– While I appreciate the MDS, you can hear the engine cruising in four-cylinder mode, and it does not sound pretty.

– That color. However, two of the kids did like it…but Boney saw me pulling up and said, “Daddy’s home and he has a new car, and it’s green, and it’s ugly! (Now you see why she has her own segment right?)